Consciousness Workshop 

November 29 – 30, 2009

The main objective of COST Action BM0605 (established in late 2007), titled "Consciousness, a Transdisciplinary, Integrated Approach" (CATIA), is to increase the understanding of (1) the defining features, (2) the behavioural markers, (3) the computational principles, and (4) the neural mechanisms associated with conscious experience in humans and animals, and to identify the clinical, societal, and ethical implications of such findings.

Over the past couple of decades, consciousness has become one of the most important scientific problems. Understanding the mechanisms involved in the conscious states we enjoy when perceiving, feeling, thinking, or acting requires a highly interdisciplinary approach that involves different disciplines (from neuroscience to philosophy; from artificial intelligence to psychology), different methods (behavioural, computational, and brain imaging methods), and different populations (from animals to pathological cases). BM0605, has organized several meetings to date, most recently on the occasion of the Berlin Meeting of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciounsess. Members of the Action are now looking forward to interact more closely with BM0601 (NeuroMath) on the occasion of this first joint meeting between the two actions.

Areas of interest:

Contributions are welcome in any domain of the neurosciences, philosophy or psychology that are relevant to the study of consciousness, particularly insofar as they connect with the NeuroMath action:

  • Fundamental issues raised by novel "mind reading" methods
  • Clinical implications of novel technologies such as deep brain stimulation
  • Empirical paradigms particularly well suited to the study of consciousness
  • Novel analysis methods to contrast information processing with and without consciousness
  • Mathematical modelling of the "computational correlates of consciousness"

 

Organizing committee:

Prof. Fofi Constantinidou, Department of Psychology, University of Cyprus

Prof. Axel Cleeremans, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium